Bloomberg's Zach Mider
reports Aubrey McClendon sold $88 million in personal well
stakes to investment vehicles created by Wachovia Bank
just three weeks after Chesapeake engaged in similar
transactions worth $600 million.

According to court documents obtained by Bloomberg, the same
Wachovia bankers worked on both August 2008 transactions, known
as volumetric production payments.

A potential conflict of interest arises if McClendon could have
received better terms on his personal deal if he was giving the
Wachovia vehicles better terms on the company's deal.

Those deals came after a separate January 2008 Wachovia
transaction that yielded McClendon $44 million, the documents
show.

“It’s in the interest of the other parties to give him a break on
his transaction if they get a break on larger transactions with
the company,” John Coffee, a corporate governance expert at
Columbia Law School, told Bloomberg.

“There’s a concern,” especially if the transactions weren’t
disclosed to shareholders, he said.